Some Things Don't Last Forever, But Some Things Do
by Everybody-Lies2
Summary: Did Will ever wondered why Mackenzie cheated on him? Yes, she was scared. But why? What if Mackenzie had been in love with someone who died, long before she even met Will. Except, this man shows up in the newsroom one morning.


**New story! Yeah! **

**I swear when I sat down I was gonna write the new chapter of "Fate or Destiny?" but I wrote this instead. It has been on my mind for some time now.**

**It won't be a long story, there's probably one or two more chapters after this one. **

**Hope, you'll like it. Let me know if you do ... or even if you don't :)**

On her way to work, Mackenzie received an urgent call from her senior producer, Jim Harper. Apparently, there was a man in the newsroom who wanted to talk to her. It seemed that he'd barge into the room, demanding to see her. He was refusing to leave and was attracting attention. What was even stranger was that he was attended by two Marines. So Jim'd told her to hurry up because the staffers were already there as well as Will and Charlie. Needless to say that they were not happy about having an intruder in their workplace.

Now, she is on the elevator on her way to the newsroom. She is trying to run in her head all the possibilities for this man's presence at 9 :40 a.m. However, no matter how hard she tries, she can't think of any reason why someone she didn't know would absolutely want to talk to her on such short notice.

The elevator's doors opens and as soon as she steps foot in the corridor she can hear people yelling. She makes her way to the bullpen, already worried about what's going on. Pretty soon, she sees Will in the middle of the room yelling at someone. She can't figure out who it is because the intruder has his back to her. Charlie is by the anchor's side trying to calm him down. Everyone else is watching the scene, not that they could work even if they wanted to.

"Who the fuck do you think you are ?" Will is pissed. "You can't come in here, demanding to speak to my EP and refusing to leave when you're asked to. In case you haven't noticed this is a workplace, not a fucking zoo." She's sure he's not only angry by the man's presence but also by the fact he wants to talk to her. She thinks it's sweet of Will to try to protect her.

"Tell me where Mackenzie is, I just wanna talk to her." The man responds frantically. She can swear she knows this voice from somewhere but she isn't sure from here exactly. She sees Will fuming from where she standing, she's pretty sure he's about to put his fist in the stranger's face. He's angry that someone, other than her, dares to challenge him in front of his own crew. She doesn't want any bloodshed, or god forbid a TMI story about this, so she interferes as she watches Will take a step closer.

"Will !" Suddenly, everyone turns their head in her direction. They were too engrossed in the scene to notice her before. She starts walking to him, intending to give him a lecture about manners and civility (yeah, she fully understands the irony of it : she's the one civilizing the man on a mission to civilize !). Her stare is fixed on her anchor, but from the corner of her eye, she notices the other man, the stranger who dares disrupt the peace in her self-made sanctuary.

She stops dead in her tracks. The Blackberry in her hand falls to the floor with a dull sound. A look of total disbelief is plastered on her face and her mouth hangs open. She can't take her eyes off of him.

Everybody looks at her, confused by her unsual behavior. When Will and Charlie both call her name at the same time, she doesn't react. The staff begins to worry, their eyes travelling back and forth from Mac to the stranger, and occasionally to Will who seems as baffled as the rest of them.

"It's impossible." She whispers, taking a step back. It's so quietly said that only the people near her hear it. The others are only aware that her lips moved but can't make out what she just said. She'd turned deathly white, as if she'd just seen a ghost.

"Mackenzie." The man says softly, taking a step forward and trying to reach out for her.

"Richard. How-" Her voice is shaking. "You're dead."

"I'm not. I'm so sorry. I was lost but I'm here now." Richard's voice is also trembling with emotion. It's obvious these two have history.

Jim, who is the nearest to her, watches her closely. He assumes she's about to faint so he quickly puts his arms around her while Neal grabs a chair and slips it under her so she can sit down. In the meantime, Will and Richard both try to get to her.

"Don't." Neither of them knows who she's talking to so they both stop halfway. Anxiously looking at her, Will asks if she's ok and what's going on. He doesn't raise his voice, because he doesn't want to frighten her, but deep down he just wishes he could yell "What the fuck is this ?" and "Who the fuck is he ?"

Mackenzie doesn't answer him. She focuses on her breathing instead, because it wouldn't do for an EP to pass out in front of her team. Not that that's what she's thinking right now, she's much too preoccupied about the man in front of her to think about anything else.

She takes a good look at him, because even though she hardly took her gaze off of him, she hadn't really paid attention to his appearance.

Richard is supposed to be the same age as her but he looks older now. He has worry lines on his face he didn't have the last time she saw him, although he's as handsome as she remembers. His short black hair seems to have been cut recently. He's still tall as ever, but he lost weight. The most flagrant change are his eyes. There's a shadow in his beautiful green orbs, where she once only saw sparkles.

"Kenz." Richard calls out again. Will turns his head and sends him an angry glare that the other man misses. That was his nickname for her. No one ever called her Kenz but him, not even Jim or Sloan. However, he has no time to dwell on it because the Marines, who had kept silent the whole time, decide to finally step in.

One of them put himself directly in front of Mac. "Mackenzie Mchale ?" He asked and Will thinks the man must be an idiot. As if people calling out to her for the past minutes wasn't making it evident that she was Mackenzie Mchale. He's pretty sure the rest of the team has the same thought because he can see a few staffers rolling their eyes.

She raises her head to meet the Marine's eyes. "Yes."

"I'm Antho-"

"I don't care who you are." She cuts him off. "Tell me how is this possible ?" She points in Richard's direction, stands up and turns her eyes to him,. She's less pale but now anger has replaced disbelief. "You've been brought back to life ? Is that it ? Because that's the only fucking good reason for not being dead, Richard !" She yells at him. "Did you pretend to be dead ? You wanted to get rid of me, and you couldn't think of any other-".

"No. Of course not." He shouts so that she can hear him over her rant. "How can you even say that ?" Mac calms down, realizing what she'd just said. Richard would never do that to her.

"Then how ?" Her voice is small and timid this time.

Richard tries to explain but the words don't come out. He turns to the Marine for help. The officer proceeds to explain. "The U.S marines found him on a deserted island in the Pacific."

"But the boat sank. There were no survivors." Mackenzie still remembers the fateful day when she was told he'd died. He'd been on a boat in the Pacific, doing some work for the U.S marines even though he wasn't one. The boat had sunk and no bodies were found. There was no survivors, she had been told.

"Yes. That's what they thought, Kenz. But they were wrong. The boat sank down, I drifted in the ocean for I don't know how long and when I opened my eyes I wasn't dead. I ended up on a island with no one on it. No humans anyway. I tried coming back, I tried so hard to find a way to come back to you. Because I couldn't bear the thought of you thinking I was dead when I wasn't. But I failed. There was no way to get back. I'm so sorry Mackenzie."

"You were stranded on an island for 12 years ?!" She needs double confirmation, so she looks at him who answers yes and she looks at the marines who nod their head.

She throws herself in his arms. Tears are falling, but she doesn't know if it's from sadness for what he's been through or happiness at seeing him alive. Either way, she doesn't give a damn right now, she's just glad he's here. They're clutching to each other and Richard's crying too.

Will takes a step back at the intimate scene in front of him. The room is completely quiet. The staffers know they should give them some privacy but they can't take their eyes off of them. After a several minutes, Charlie coughs to get their attention. Mackenzie slowly raises her head from Richard's chest, and looks at her boss. Then, she sweeps her gaze around and people start looking anywhere but at her. It takes her a few moments to realize where she is : in the middle of the newsroom, in the arms of a man no one has ever heard of. They probably wanted to no more, but now was not the time for explanations. She untangles herself from Richard's embrace, gives him a flashing smile and walks to Charlie, who is just a few steps away. Will is next to him, but she's careful to avoid his stare because she doesn't know what she'd find in it if she was to look at him right now.

"I need to go." Charlie says nothing. "For a few days. I don't know how long." Will really wants to interrupt this one-sided conversation when Charlie nods in agreement. The old man understands she needs to leave and deal with whoever this man is.

"Jim can handle the broadcast in my absence, with Don's help. It'll be a good experience for him."

"Ok." That's all Charlie says, putting an hand on her arm as a sign of support, telling her without words that it was alright.

Will, on the other hand, doesn't think any of this is alright and he most certainly doesn't want anyone else in his ear.

"Mac, you can't d-" He tries to speek but she doesn't let him finish.

"Will, I don't need your permission." She replies calmly. Judging by her tone, this is not up for discussion. "Don't be an ass while I'm gone." She knows he doesn't like this at all, and that he's going to try to show his discontent by taking it out on the staff. She doesn't want that, so she makes it clear to him that he'd better behave and be profesionnal and not be fucking childish. She turns around, takes Richard's hand and begins to drag him out of the room.

"WHO THE FUCK IS HE ?" Will finds his voice again. He's not happy that she abandons him for a stranger.

She hears him, but ignores him anyway. Now is really not the time to argue, and she has other fish to fry, as Charlie would say.

However, before she's out of earshot, she hears one of the Marines responds "He's her fiancé." The room falls completely silent, trying to register what the man just said. And she hears Will gasps. She can't see him, but she can imagine the look of shock on his face.

As she steps into the elevator with Richard, she knows she'll have a lot of explanation to do when she gets back.


End file.
